Now You See It, And Now You See It

Often when an object comes into the studio with missing bits, it is more cost effective AND conservation responsible to fabricate those missing bits from a modern material such as in this case by using a two part epoxy putty.

In the first photo you can see that there is an area about 2 X 2 1/2" that is missing. The second photo shows a roughed out blob of epoxy putty. In the third that blob has been carved to match the original design. And in the final photo the carving has been retouched to match the original color and patina.

What is really nice about this precess is that none of the original carving has been covered. The epoxy putty only makes contact at the joins. Plus there was no need to drill and dowel like you often have to when you are splicing wood to wood or stone to stone.

I'm using this image in an up coming presentation at the TAM conference. It tells such a good store, I thought I would post this reformatted version.